People need to sleep

Picture this situation: it’s past midnight. You, being the responsible college student, have brushed your teeth, washed your face, and changed into your pajamas. You settle into your bed, and you’re all ready to close your eyes and get the recommended eight hours of sleep before your 9 a.m. class when — IS THAT DUBSTEP?! IT’S A TUESDAY NIGHT, WHY WOULD YOU HAVE A PARTY NOW?

It’s a familiar problem to anyone who lives in a college dorm. There are thousands of young adults in a building with thin walls. You hear everything. And everything includes the time when the people across the hall from you decide to have a rager the night before your midterm.

So what happens when you find yourself in this situation? You have to make a decision about how to deal with it. The way I see it, there are three choices.

A-wait it out and hope that they quiet down on their own.

B-call your R.A. and make them sort out the problem.

C-knock on the offending party’s door and tell them you have class in eight hours, you’re trying to go to sleep, can you keep it down, thanks.

Disclaimer: the above strategies are for dealing with loud people that do not live in the same suite as you. If your loud people are in your suite, room, or common area, tell them in person that they’re loud. Or send a text. They’re not going to know otherwise.

All of these strategies have their advantages and disadvantages, and I’ve seem them all in action thanks to the guys that lived in the suite across from me in sophomore year. They had the awful habit of playing the guitar, having off-key sing-a-longs, and leaving the door open.

My default is strategy A, especially if it’s late and I really don’t want to get out of bed. If I closed all of the doors and buried my head under a pillow and blankets, I would still hear the noise, but it was muffled and I would fall asleep eventually. The key here is distance

Another time my suitemate, Katy, called reslife when these boys were acting up. That was strategy B. Our R.A. went to their door, they apologized, and they quieted down… but 10 minutes later they were back to their previous noise level.

Noisy dorm neighbors are the worst during finals week. Even if they have nothing to do today, the people surrounding them probably need to study for finals right now.

Katy and I were studying for the finals we had that day. We had a precious few hours before our exams, needed to study, and every moment was critical. With that in mind. I decided to go for strategy C.

I opened our suite door, looked directly at the noisemaking people, and said in my best polite-yet-annoyed voice, “We have finals in two hours. Could you close your door?”

The guys were shocked for a second, but they quickly mumbled “Sorry.” Then they closed their door and were much quieter. Katy and I studied for our finals. Victory!